The Food and Drug Administration has proposed banning menthol-flavored cigarettes, potentially beginning in 2024. It’s a tragedy that it is taking this long, but it’s never too late to save a life — or in this case, potentially hundreds of thousands of lives.
It’s been 13 years since the Tobacco Control Act kiboshed flavored cigarettes. No longer could manufacturers dress up deadly nicotine-laced cancer sticks by infusing them with candy, herb, spice, cola, coffee or fruit flavors. But there was a loophole, or smoke ring, large enough to drive a fleet of hearses through: menthol, the single most popular flavor, enjoyed especially among Black smokers.
Why? Ironically, in the name of social justice. Because menthol was the product of choice for about 85% of Black smokers — making it the prime reason why nearly 50,000 Black American lives are lost every year to smoking-related diseases — the likes of Al Sharpton fought a ban. Take it off the market, said the reverend, and Black smokers will resort to the black market. There’d be more Eric Garners selling loosies, confronted and choked to death by police.
